Kucinich-Paul Resolution To Pull US Military Out Of Pakistan

The five hundred million dollars in aid the US pledged to Pakistan this week is not the only backing the United States is providing the country considered an ally against terrorist elements. According to a statement by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the White House has increased its military commitment to Pakistan without Congressional oversight or approval. The White House’s abuse of its authority, Kucinich says in his statement, “must stop.” On Thursday evening, he and fellow House member Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced a privileged resolution to pull US forces from the country. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi gives the nod, the Kucinich-Paul resolution will jump the line of items before the House next week, right before Congress breaks for its August recess.

Although American military support in Pakistan is not new, nor unreported, Kucinich’s Friday statement bristles on two points – Kucinich claims that he and his peers learned about the troop upgrade via an article in The Wall Street Journal, and that the deployment is illegal according to the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

Continue:
http://www.truth-out.org/kucinich-says-white-house-abused-it…

House Expected to Act Next Week on Kucinich, Paul Privileged Resolution to Remove U.S. Forces in Pakistan
H. Con. Res. 301 Cites 1973 War Powers Authorization

Washington, Jul 23, 2010

The House of Representatives is expected to act next week on a privileged resolution introduced last night by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Ron Paul (R-TX). The resolution directs the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Pakistan.

“We have known that U.S. forces have been operating in secret inside the territories of Pakistan without Congressional approval. We recently learned from an article in the Wall Street Journal titled, ‘U.S. Forces Step Up Pakistan Presence’ that the United States is engaged in a covert strategy to increase our troops’ role there incrementally, with the goal of convincing Pakistan to be more accepting of our presence. This is a violation of the 1973 War Powers Resolution and it is our Constitutional responsibility as Members of Congress to act,” said Kucinich.

In the recent Ron Paul update, he points  out some facts that make me mad.  It should make every American furious.  I highlighted below what I thought was important and goes against common sense.  Our failed nation building attempts contributes to our national deficit.  Billions of dollars are literally going to the corrupt officials overseas.

No More U.S. Tax Dollars for Corrupt Afghan Officials!

by Ron Paul

Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to say what a lot of Americans already know: that our involvement in Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After nearly 10 years and approaching 1 trillion dollars spent, the conflict is going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go.

After all, if victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable. With our economy at home in serious trouble, this wasteful occupation is something we clearly cannot afford. Each soldier costs us one million dollars per year and yet most in Washington are only considering how many more soldiers to send. Fuel costs an astonishing $400 per gallon for our military in Afghanistan. Yet somehow, many politicians feel it is acceptable to squeeze this money out of our taxpayers who are truly struggling economically to fund this non-war. Our economy here is not showing any real signs of improvement. Official unemployment is pushing 10% and getting worse. Real unemployment is over 20% according to the free-market economists. The growing debt and inflation used to fund this occupation only dooms us to more economic hardship for a long time to come – and for what?

Where the money for Afghanistan comes from is one problem; where it goes is another. Recently it has come to light that much of the aid money we send to Afghanistan is lost due to corruption. Billions of tax dollars from hard working Americans are ending up lining the pockets of corrupt Afghan officials and likely even filtering into the Taliban we are ostensibly fighting. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that curiously enough, billions more than the Afghan government collects in revenue is leaving the country in the form of cash on huge containers and in suitcases and mostly ending up in Dubai as well-connected Afghanistan officials buy up luxury homes and enrich their personal offshore bank accounts. Investigations into corruption and graft have been blocked by the Karzai government, probably because Karzai’s own brother would have to be implicated. It is encouraging that the foreign aid appropriation subcommittee has attempted to block billions in aid as a response to these allegations, but this is likely to be temporary and may not even succeed.

The point is that sending aid money to Afghanistan is not making poor people over there better off. It’s making poor people here worse off. Corruption is endemic to Afghanistan with graft comprising about one fourth of their economy. Even though it is considered the second most corrupt nation in the world, according to Transparency International, we still send the Afghan government billions of dollars in aid and are shocked to find it is not making its way out of the sticky fingers of the officials entrusted with it.

Robbing citizens here to fund corruption over there is not helping average citizens anywhere. We are sacrificing real economic opportunity at home for the opportunity to line corrupt pockets in Afghanistan. Not only that, but American soldiers are being killed and maimed. It is tragic and frustrating how much we have lost and wasted already. It’s time to leave Afghanistan to the Afghans to sort out. I am glad more Americans are finally willing to face this reality.

Ron Paul: End the War in Afghanistan!  The transcript is below and I think his last paragraph makes sense.

End the War in Afghanistan

by Ron Paul

This past week various news events once again made it abundantly clear that our foreign policy is an abject failure. Unfortunately in spite of this the administration is determined to stay on this destructive course despite any past promises to change it. For Afghanistan especially, if ever there was an opportunity to admit shortcomings and change strategies, this past week was it.

There really is nothing for us to win in Afghanistan. Our mission has morphed from apprehending those who attacked us to apprehending those who threaten or dislike us for invading their country, to remaking an entire political system and even a culture. I remain highly skeptical that as foreign occupiers we can ever impose Western-style democracy on another country. Our troops have debilitating restrictions on defending themselves against enemies which are so often indistinguishable from civilians. They also face dire setbacks in winning hearts and minds when innocents are mistakenly harmed, which happens all the time. We can never make friends this way, and yet the tactic never works.

This is an expensive, bloody, endless exercise in futility, though few are willing to admit this just yet. But every second they spend in denial has real cost in lives and livelihoods. Many of us can agree on one thing, however: our military spending in general has grown way out of control. This is largely because fiscal accountability and military budgeting is seen by many as “weak on defense.” This is absolutely wrong in a dangerous way to think. It is certainly possible for the military to waste money, or to spend money counter-productively, and indeed it has. But out of political correctness the military has been getting blank checks from the administrations and Congress for far too long.

It is important to defend our soil, but let us defend us our own soil instead of defending Europe’s soil. Our willingness to defend Europe enables their lavish social spending at our expense while they criticize our model of capitalism. It’s time they allocated the money for their own defense. The same goes for Korea, Japan and other countries like Egypt and Israel. It is also important that while our troops are in combat, our soldiers have what they need to do the best they can even if we disagree with why they are there. It’s an embarrassment that some soldiers and families have had to buy body armor at their own expense when billions are awarded to politically well-connected defense contractors for weapons systems that don’t work, are over budget and past deadlines.

This is the kind of waste that needs to end. I firmly believe that there is enough waste in the military budget that we can both save money overall and at the same time make us safer. Of course, the obvious way to save money and be safer is to stop meddling in the affairs of foreign countries and just bring our troops home. This will happen eventually if our empire, like every other fallen empire, insists on spending itself into collapse. If we want to avoid this we must look into ways to bring our costs under control. The military budget must be on the chopping block along with everything else.